1. Field of the Invention
The making of super mirrors or other premium optical elements by exaggerated ion beam polishing and by in-situ polishing and deposition of ion beam films onto a substrate of glass, ceramic, metal or plastic with out breaking the vacuum.
2. Related Art
Conventional cleaning of optical substrates preparatory to coating is principally confined to removing dirt and oil from the substrate surface to be film coated because in the optical field, it is believed that removing substrate material degrades the substrate film receiving surface. Ion beams directed at the substrate from a right angle can indeed, degrade the surface. The use of too much power (i.e.) current and/or voltage also will result in damage to the substrate surface as does the use of ion beams on stationary substrates.
No related-prior art is known wherein the beam polishing is carried beyond the mere surface cleaning of a substrate, nor wherein such a super smoothed substrate is immediately optical film coated in-situ to achieve vastly improved optical qualities including anti-reflective coatings and highly reflective mirror coatings.